Shares of Rams Home Loans were battered on Thursday after the Australian residential home loan provider failed to refinance hundreds of millions of dollars of short-term debt because of turmoil in the credit markets.

The shares fell as much as 60 per cent in Sydney trading before closing down 36 per cent on the day. After floating at A$2.50 they now languish at 86.5 cents, leaving investors nursing overall losses of 65 per cent in a matter of weeks.